I don’t know if I’ve extolled the virtues of Ubuntu on this blog yet, but they are many. They are, however, not the topic of this post. Every once in a while, I like to try different operating systems on my server, and at the moment, I’m just coming back to an Ubuntu server after a brief fling with Windows Server 2003.

On the list of things to do after install was to get Ubuntu to start the svnserve daemon at boot. I’ve taken the time to look this up enough times that I figured I’d just add it here. This procedure holds for anything you’d like to do at boot, I’m simply running my svn daemon.

Step 1 – Create your script.
Simply create a new file (I called mine svnserve) and type the command you’d like to run

Update: This post has garnered a lot of attention. So I’d like to clarify up front: this article is not about hacking into other databases. This is about configuring a server you own so that you can access it from a remote machine on the same network. It is completely insecure and should never be used for production deployments.

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Very quickly, another thing that I typically like to do on my server boxes is allow root access to my Mysql database from remote computers. I don’t forward the port through my router and I use a very secure password (doesn’t everyone?). I don’t want to create a security risk, I just want to connect to the database from other computers around my network – particularly from my laptop.

Again (like most of my instructions) these instructions are for Ubuntu – currently Edgy Eft.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Ubuntu installs Mysql at /etc/mysql/ by default. Now we need to set a root password.

mysql -u root
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'ROOT'@'LOCALHOST"

= PASSWORD('new_password');

Now while we’re still here, we’ll create a new HOST for root and allow root to login from anywhere.

Thanks to Thom for the Flush Privileges comment. I think it depends on other settings in your MySQL setup, since I didn’t have to, but just in case, I’ve added it here. We’re almost done now. We just have to tell Mysql to allow remote logins.

sudo vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Out-of-the-box, MySQL only allows connections from the localhost identified by the IP Address of 127.0.0.1. We need to remove that restriction, so find the line that says

bind-address = 127.0.0.1

and comment it out. That’s all there is to it! Now get your favorite MySql client and start developing.